HJ Lim
Biography
The rising pianist whose Beethoven recordings for EMI Classics have received critical acclaim from The New York Times, BBC Music and The Telegraph, South Korean breathtaking performer HJ Lim, is becoming a classical music phenomenon as we speak.
In 2010, her extraordinary decision to encompass in live concerts the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, performed in Paris in August 2010, in over eight consecutive days, created a sensation in the classical music world.
One year later, HJ Lim recorded the complete cycle for EMI Classics and published the complete Beethoven piano sonatas divided into eight themes, accompanied by her own essay with a powerful new insight on Beethoven sonatas, becoming (at the age of 24) the youngest-ever to record the Beethoven complete sonatas (a pinnacle of the solo piano repertoire), first-ever and the only classical pianist to debut in 2012 at number 1 on Billboard Classical Overall Chart and Classical iTunes Charts in the USA and Canada, and now around the world. Her next Ravel/Scriabin recording will be released by EMI Classics very soon.
Her upcoming appearances with orchestra include her debut at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Münchner Symphoniker, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, as well as an Asian tour with Sir Roger Norrington and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, a South American tour with the Hamburg-NDR Symphony Orchestra and masterclasses in Turkey and Chicago.
For the upcoming season, HJ Lim is invited to perform recitals at the Annecy Classic Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris as part of the Maestros & Friends series, a prestigious series co-presented by Arcadia Musica, Cecilia Meireles, Rio de Janeiro, at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival and at the Beethoven Festival of Chicago.
She has recently performed with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Zurich Tonhalle, at the Wigmore Hall in London, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Sala Verdi in Milan, Stadtcasino in Basel and at the Menton Festival.
KBS TV is planning a documentary about HJ Lim this ongoing month using extracts from the preparation of her concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London and at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris for a TV documentary called 'Global Success Story' (which had recently filmed Ban Ki-Moon, UN), which will be broadcasted even before her 1st South Korean tour in 2013, when she comes back to perform in her native country.
HJ LIM began her musical studies at the age of three under Jong-Sun Kim. Aged twelve, Lim decided of her own accord to relocate to France, where she immersed herself in the musical world of the composers who had shaped her early years. After becoming the youngest ever person to obtain the Diplôme d'Etudes Musicales Complètes of Normandy Conservatory in France, aged fifteen, HJ Lim graduated with First Prize and obtained the Diplôme de Formation Supérieure, with highest distinctions in the class of Henri Barda of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris.
HJ Lim records exclusively for EMI Classics on Yamaha’s Flagship CFX concert grand pianos.
